Stores condemn banks over charges

In its annual payments survey, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the average charge for processing a credit card payment was 37.1p, making up 44.5 per cent of retailers’ payment costs despite only accounting for 10 per cent of transactions.

BRC director-general Stephen Robertson called on the banks to reduce their charges so they “genuinely reflect” the actual costs involved.

He said: “Unjustifiably high payment charges are still being taken from retailers. The question is should this money be going into increasing banks’ profits or to keeping shop prices down for customers?

“Reducing the charges banks impose so they genuinely reflect the actual costs involved in processing these transactions is the right answer.”

The survey found consumers were increasingly reluctant to spend money they have not got, by turning from credit cards to cash and debit cards.

The proportion of transactions using credit cards fell by 12.9 per cent in a year when use of debit cards rose by 15.8 per cent. Cash was involved in a smaller proportion of transactions than a year earlier but the average amount spent on each purchase still increased by 13 per cent to £12.93.

Cash was the quickest way to pay, taking an average 27.2 seconds compared with an average 39.4 seconds for a card payment.

Mr Robertson added: “Cash remains king and is used for more than half of all retail payments.”

The BRC survey is based on the results from nearly eight billion transactions in store and online, adding up to 60% of total UK retail sales.